What constitutes "GM Friendly" adventure / module in your opinion?

[Jhaeman]

Even though it's a pain, I think it's important to have encounters (and maps) that start off at long ranges sometimes. I've seen too many campaigns where archers never have to think about range increments, wizards never worry about the difference between short and long range spells, and no one ever has to take the "Run" action because every encounter starts with the heroes and villains right next to each other :)

[tonyz]

I think a variety of different types of encounters is handy -- if everything is a dungeon crawl, no one will worry about long-range stuff; if everything is combat, no one will worry about diplomacy; if everything is easy, no one will be mentally ready for the APL+4/5 encounters.

Tactics as given should be reasonably intelligent -- anybody who spends three rounds buffing at the start of an encounter will be dead before they can act in round 4, unless there's something going on. But a lot of tactics seem to be set up assuming that PCs, especially high-level PCs, won't just act fast and do something deadly.

Also, have some reactions from time to time -- group A 30' away should react if combat happens within earshot; the clever devil should watch and listen to the PCs for a bit rather than just jumping into attack mode; some monsters should try to surrender or run rather than fighting mindlessly to the death. (I still use something like the old AD&D morale rules for most monsters.)

Long-range encounters should happen -- flying archers, a castle on the other side of a chasm (I like Thistletop in Rise of the Runelords for just this reason.) Of course, they're hard to map, and they can be lethal for unready PCs, so make sure they have retreat routes (back away from the castle, duck into the trees to get cover from the archers, etc.)

[Anthony - Griffon Lore Games]

Will.Spencer wrote:

Let's see...

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• Give every unique NPC an alignment. This is the quickest shortcut to me playing the NPC with limited prep time.
  

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That's a good one. Thanks!

[Saldiven]

tonyz wrote:

Also, have some reactions from time to time -- group A 30' away should react if combat happens within earshot; the clever devil should watch and listen to the PCs for a bit rather than just jumping into attack mode; some monsters should try to surrender or run rather than fighting mindlessly to the death. (I still use something like the old AD&D morale rules for most monsters.)

I agree with this. It's funny how many AP's have encounter areas that are very close to one another, where different groups would easily make any required perception check to hear combat in another area, but the AP doesn't bother to address all those other groups coming to investigate. Are we supposed to believe they'd just sit in their room waiting to get "agro'd" (to use MMO terms), or are they going to join in to protect their comrades? If they join in, how long should it be expected for them to arrive? Etc.